Books
Contents |
Tripods I - The White Mountains
| Tripods I - The White Mountains | |
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| Instant Buy: | Amazon |
| First Edition: | 1967 |
| New Edition: | Simon Pulse, April 2003 |
| Author: | John Christopher |
| Pages: | 208 |
The first of the trilogy in The Tripods story, published 1967. Will is a 13yr old English boy from the village of Wherton, a small farming area. He witnesses the Capping Ceremony of his cousin, Jack, and begins to think a lot about when he will be Capped, next year. He notices the changes in Jack and has a lot of questions that neitherJack nor anyone else will answer. Will's unease is seized on by a man named Ozymandias, who appears to be a vagrant, a man whose Capping failed. He explains that he is really a free man, and the Cap he wears is false, made by men. He tells Will about the Tripods' conquering of Earth and that there is an enclave of free men in the White Mountains, in Switzerland, fighting back against the Tripods.
Will and his cousin Henry run away after donning false Caps, a move they hope will lead the Tripods to believe they are already Capped, and are arranged passage on a ship by Ozymandias, although Ozymandias himself stays behind to continue recruiting a while longer before he, too, returns. The boys are nearly kidnapped by another ship's captain, but the captain of the Orion intervenes to save them.
They arrive on the European mainland, in France, and begin their trek over land. They encounter a French boy who saves them from a group intending to hand them over for Capping. His name is Jean-Paul, and he is intelligent and inventive, wearing crude glasses he made to help him see better. He also helped engineer a 'shmand-fair', a primitive railroad on the old tracks, with a combination of steam and horse propulsion. Henry dubs the boy 'Beanpole' because he is tall and lanky, and the nickname sticks. The group passes through a 'great-city', their name for one of the ruined cities large numbers of people once lived in, shown to be Paris,France in the TV series. They are awed by things like cars, a telephone, jewelry, canned food and weapons. They easily figure out the 'metal eggs', or hand grenades, but aren't able to determine how to use the guns or how a car works. They also notice the railroad in the city. They know they can't stay long, though, between the dangers of vagrants and the Tripods themselves, and they continue on their way.
However, as they leave the city, Will becomes ill. The trio must stop and rest in a town whose inhabitants find and nurse the sick Will. The town is the home of wealthy people, namely the Comptess, the Compt (French equivelants of Count and Countess) and their daughter, Eloise. Will believes she is not yet Capped,due to her personality and spunk, but when he pulls off the turban she wears, he sees she is Capped. He begins to ponder staying here, even as Henry and Beanpole leave, as life does not seem all that bad, with its fine clothes, rich food and medieval-style games. The Compt and Comptess even offer to get Will a place among the nobility of the town. But he learns that they are still slaves to the Tripods, as Eloise tells him of how she will be queen of a local tournament and then be taken to serve the Masters in their city. Jolted back to the reality of life under the Tripods, Will finally follows after Henry and Beanpole.
As Will rushes to catch up to the others, he has a run in with a Tripod, but it strangely does not Cap him. He discovers after reuniting with his companions that it left a tracking beacon on his arm. Henry and Beanpole are distrustful for a bit, and Will must convince them that he is not an agent of the Tripods. The two boys manage to remove the beacon from Will's arm, but the process is difficult and painful. The boys see a Tripod that has been following the beacon and attack it with the hand grenades, destroying it. However, its death brings more Tripods, and the boys are forced to hide as they comb the area for the culprits. When it finally appears safe to leave, they are nearly crushed by two more Tripods, but they are not hunting. Instead, they appear to be playing a form of the Chase the Sphere game that Will sees later on in the city, in book 2. Finally, the three boys manage to make it to the rebel outpost as the first book ends.
Tripods II - The City of Gold and Lead
| Tripods II - The City of Gold and Lead | |
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| Instant Buy: | Amazon |
| First Edition: | Content will follow. |
| New Edition: | Simon Pulse, Reprint edition, April 2003 |
| Author: | John Christopher |
| Pages: | 224 |
The second book of the Tripods trilogy. Published in 1967. Will begins to train with other members of the resistance, hoping he will be able to compete in an upcoming annual sporting event for a chance to go to the City of the Tripods and gather information. Julius, the resistance leader, has concerns about Will's impulsiveness and lack of discipline, but Will promises to control himself. Beanpole and Fritz are chosen as well, but Henry is asked to stay and help at the base.
The boys board a barge downriver, the craft stopping in several places to do business. In one town, Will and Fritz, the other boy competing in the games, have to split up and track down Ulf, the barge captain, who is a heavy drinker, because they fear he'll say the wrong thing while drunk. While they're looking for him, Will gets in a fight and is sentenced to the Pit, a place where troublemakers are thrown to be pelted with various items. He can't climb out because of the spikes at the top of the pit, but Beanpole finds him and helps him out. The boys then have to build a raft to get the rest of the way to the games, as the barge has already left.
At the games, Will and Fritz win their events, but Beanpole does not. Will and Fritz are taken to the city inside a Tripod, and Will quickly realizes how difficult conditions in the city are. The gravity is artificially increased, because the originated on a planet with a higher gravity than Earth's. It is oppressively hot, and the' air is poisonous to humans, so the servants must wear helmets with air scrubbers. The oppressive atmosphere takes a harsh toll on the servants and they all look much older than Will, even though they are only a few years older. Most of the slaves last only a couple of years before the city wears them out.
The boys are taken to a selection chamber where they wait in individual cells to be chosen by a Master. Will begins to fear he won't be chosen, but finally, he is selected. His duties include preparing meals, helping his Master bathe driving him around, running errands and serving as a companion. His Master frequently pets him with a tentacle, and Will equates himself to a dog first, then a cat. Will also does some nursing when his Master gets The Sickness, or the Curse of the Skloodzi, which makes him weak and turns his skin brownish. Will frequently brings him gas bubbles to soothe him.
Although Will's Master is benevolent, he later learns that Fritz's is brutal and regularly beats him for no reason. Will has a hard time finding him in the city, but they eventually devise a way to meet and speak. Fritz learns little, but Will's Master reveals a lot to him. He shows Will things like the Pyramid of Beauty, where the preserve specimens of animal and human life for their own pleasure. Sadly, Will spots Eloise among the preserved humans-while the boys brought to the city serve the, most of the girls are killed and preserved to display traits like hair color. Will also sees the playing a sort of game called the Sphere Chase in an arena-like enclosure.
Will's Master also tells him of the' journey to Earth and subsequent invasion with the use of mind control via television (see When the s Came), and of their plan to transform Earth's atmosphere into one suitable for them to breathe. He learns that the mothership with the equipment for the plan will arrive in about four years' time. He begins making plans to escape and get this information back to Julius.
Eventually, Will is forced to take action when his Master finds his writings in his refuge, the place where a servant can eat and sleep without needing the respirator helmet, and attempts to examine his Cap. Will punches him in the face,and inadvertently finds that a Master can be killed with a blow to this area. He flees along with Fritz and escapes via the waterfall that takes water back into the river. Fritz, however, stays behind, planning to throw the off Will's trail by telling them that Will has gone to the Place of Happy Release,that is, the city's death chamber, since his Master has died and he can no longer be of service. Will meets up with Beanpole outside the city, and the two begin the trek back to Julius at the hideout.
Tripods III - The Pool of Fire
| Tripods III - The Pool of Fire | |
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| Instant Buy: | Amazon |
| First Edition: | Content will follow. |
| New Edition: | Content will follow. |
| Author: | John Christopher |
| Pages: | Content will follow. |
The final chapter of the Tripod trilogy. Published in 1967. Will and Fritz return to the hideout, which has been moved by Julius in case any of the athletes had their minds read. Scouts take the boys to the new location and they report what happened. Julius is pleased and unhappy at the same time, glad that Will learned so much but disappointed that he did not realize the danger of leaving his writings in the refuge.
He later sends Will out on a mission to gain new recruits. Will is surprised to see that his traveling companion will be Fritz. Fritz was delayed a time by his weakness, and had to recover before he was strong enough to escape the city. He took ill again after fleeing the city, and had been taken in and nursed by a woman whose son had gone vagrant. He finally slipped away and managed to return home.
Will and Fritz see parts of the Middle East during their trip. They are able to seed some resistance groups in the beginning, but as they move on, Tripods are seen less and less and they find themselves unable to get very many recruits. This is also partly due to the language barrier, and the fact that the Tripods are worshiped here in a religion not unlike Islam in some respects. The boys witness a Hunt, or execution, where criminals are set free to try and escape past the safety of a river boundary. However, the humans never make it, and the Tripods grab them and tear them apart.
When Will and Fritz return to base, Julius orchestrates the capture of a Master.The first attempt fails, and the Masters take the next Tripod through the area on a slightly different course to avoid another trap. The rebels resort to having Will dress in green,the Masters' color, and ride out on a green painted horse in order to distract the Master and capture him. The prisoner is taken back to base for tests and questioning, and he reveals that his name is Ruki. He appears not pleased with the use of human slaves, but shows no dislike of the' plan for Earth.
Will is under the command of Ulf, the captain of the barge the boys traveled to the games on. Ulf has given up drinking, but is harsh and difficult. The more Will tries to please him, the more annoyed he gets. Julius indicates that he brought the two together in hopes that it would instill more discipline in Will. However, he says that he would not have permitted Ulf to come there if he had known of his foolishness during the journey to the games. Eventually, however, Ulf is sent to another place to help with his health problems. Just prior to this, however, he plays a prank on Rukiby putting alcohol in his food. Ruki becomes paralyzed and passes out, This leads to the realization that alcohol can be used against the
Julius orchestrates a plan to send teams inside the' three cities in order to introduce alcohol into the water supply. They strike in coordination in order to prevent the cities from warning each other about the plan. Will and Fritz's team is successful,although after the are paralyzed, they have to keep the slaves from killing themselves by telling them that the Masters will soon wake up. They find the city's power source, the Pool of Fire, and shut it down. Unfortunately, the switch emits a dangerous type of electricity that kills Mario, the boy who pulled it. The group is enlarged now by some of the freed Capped, their Caps deactivated either by the generator being powered down or by the Masters being incapacitated. Sadly, a few have died and others have gone vagrant, mentally troubled without the power of the Caps.
The boys choose not to escape by the river this time because they want to destroy the city before the Masters wake up. They try to open the doors manually and in the process crack the city's dome, releasing the' air and killing them all. Unfortunately, they lose Carlos when the wind grabs him and pulls him through the crack. The boys must return to the Pool of Fire and re-activate it in order to allow an escape. They are able to avoid another loss because the switch can be thrown and contact broken before it is powered up and able to harm anyone. As the boys leave the city, they find another Tripod, but they later discover that when the city was shut down, the Tripods shut down as well, and the Masters inside died.
After returning to base, they discover that two of the attacks succeeded, but the third, the American city, failed. The boys, including Henry, had to flee after a Master ran away and sounded an alarm before they could deliver the alcohol to the water. Julius launches an attack by force, knowing the element of surprise is gone. Airplanes were built with information of the ancients which was found, and an attempt is made to bomb the city. Unfortunately, the Tripods disable the planes' engines and many crash. Many of the pilots that manage to land are killed by the Tripods on the ground. Henry survives, and manages to return to base and relay information about what happened.
The final attack is launched with balloons made from Beanpole's research. At first, it appears that this attack, too, will fail, as the bombs are either missing the target or bouncing off and exploding too high to break the dome. Henry solves the problem by landing on the dome and detonating the bomb he holds, sacrificing his life to deliver the final blow to the.
Now free, humanity begins to quickly research and build, eager to regain the lost technology of their ancestors. Things like electricity and radio are brought back, but television is slower to return, because scientists want to ensure that it can't be used again to hypnotize humans. Fritz and Will try to return to something like a normal life, with Fritz becoming a farmer and Will exploring the lands now vacated by the Tripods, while Beanpole continues with his research.
Everyone goes on alert when the' mothership appears in orbit. Naturally, it is feared they will bomb humanity and destroy it with force, but the only bombs dropped are on their own cities, likely to prevent humans from reverse engineering the' technology. Hundreds of scientists working inside die, but humanity as a whole is spared and the ship leaves. Ruki, the last Master on Earth, howls and dies in his prison at about the same time. It is concluded that he and the Masters found dead in their Tripods were simply unable to cope with the despair of being conquered and defeated.
Julius holds a meeting in the White Mountains, the Council of Man, with representatives from various nations. Sadly, nationalistic tendencies surface, with many countries arguing that other nations only care for their own interests. Some complain about the cold climate of the meeting place. Some want Julius to stay in power while others want him gone, seeing him as a war leader, a dictator. He is ultimately voted out. Several delegations, like the Americans and Germans, pack up and leave. Fritz, Will and Beanpole decide to step up and try to help the human race unite and answer the final question of the story:Having mastered the, can humanity now master itself?
Tripods 0 - When The Tripods Came
| Tripods 0 - When The Tripods Came | |
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| Instant Buy: | Amazon |
| First Edition: | Content will follow. |
| New Edition: | Simon Pulse, Reissue edition, April 2003 |
| Author: | John Christopher |
| Pages: | 160 |
The prequel to the Tripods, published in 1988. It expands on the story told to Will by his Master in the second novel, The City of Gold and Lead, about how the Masters managed to invade and conquer Earth by using mind control and television.
Plot: a young English teen named Laurence, aka Laurie, and his friend Andy are awakened by the arrival of a Tripod while on a camping trip. The machine abducts a man who came out to look at it, and destroys the farmhouse he came out of. A tank shows up and tries to greet the Tripod with classical music, only to be picked up and crumpled. This prompts a burst of bombs by RAF fighters, and the Tripod is destroyed.
Later, Laurie learns that two other Tripods landed at the same time, one in the United States and one in Russia. The Russians destroyed theirs with bombs, and the US just surrounded theirs and waited. The attack is made light of by the media, although Laurie and Andy get a lot of questions about their experience. Life returns to normal, and soon, The Trippy Show begins airing on television. It's a mixture of live action and animation and starts out lampooning the Tripod, but then airs a skit depicting the Tripod as a hero, rescuing a knight and his princess from a dragon. While some are enamored by it, others aren't impressed. Laurie's sister, Angela, becomes crazed about the show, becoming violent when Laurie botches recording an episode for her. The family turns to a doctor friend, Geoffrey Monmouth, to dehypnotize her, and the gamble works. While she was under,though, Angela reveals that the show told her to obey the Tripod and do what it commanded. The media dubs the obsessive fans of the show 'Trippies', and there is more and more discord and unrest caused by them. Some are disappearing to live in Trippy communes, and when a second wave of Tripods lands, the Trippies begin obsessively following them. People disappear from Laurie's school and even some of the teachers are revealed to be Trippies. Laurie's family notices friends being sucked in as well.
One day, school is dismissed early because one of the nearby Tripods is moving. On the way home, Laurie and his schoolmate see the Tripod walking along with its followers clinging to it. One girl falls and dies, still praising the Tripod despite her severe injuries. Laurie's family is visited later by a rich uncle, bringing a briefcase of Caps and trying to force them on the family. Laurie's mom chases them off with a heavy statue, but the family realizes it's not safe. They have been told to stay put, but they fear becoming sitting ducks if they don't flee.
They take their boat, the Eidelweiss, and head to their cottage on the island of Guernsey. However, the Capped have already reached the island. The family hears news on the radio of a veritable civil war between Capped and uncapped, and they see a battle between groups of planes overhead. Realizing it's not safe, the family leaves Guernsey, with Laurie's father hijacking a plane and forcing the pilot to Switzerland, where the family of Elsa,Laure's stepmother,lives. The Swiss aren't happy about the English as they question them about the hijack and a subsequent scuffle on the plane, but they send them on toward their destination while they decide what to do, warning them to stay out of trouble or risk deportation immediately.
For a time, it's safe in the village where Laurie's grandparents, dubbed the 'Swigram' and 'Swigramp' live, but then Switzerland is invaded by Capped Germans and French, and although most of the family still appears to have their false Caps, Laurie does not, and the soldiers insist he be Capped the next day. The family must leave, and just after they do, the house is destroyed. The Swigramp dies just before the family leaves, and shortly after, the Swigram also dies. The family takes up hiding in the mountains, in an isolated area where they can hide from the Tripods, at least for a while. They recruit more children as they go, knowing they must fight back and the only ones who can do so are the children who are not yet Capped, those under 14. As the novel ends, Laurie and his parents spot a Tripod replacing its followers' temporary Caps with the permenant Caps seen in the three books of the trilogy. The small band of resisters they have formed will be the basis for outpost of the free humans to whichWill, Beanpole, Henry will be directed to by Ozymandius in the first book.
Trivia:
Geoffrey Monmouth is likely named after the medieval British writer Geoffrey of Monmouth, whose "History of the Kings of Britain" gave us many of the modern versions of the Arthurian Legends.
Between the novels
We can get a pretty good idea of what happened after the first novel by looking at the later books. The skirmishes between Capped and uncapped continued for a time, with the Capped eventually winning out, following the Tripods' orders to find bring for Capping anyone without a Cap. The Tripods built bases on Earth, three domed cities in Central America, Europe and Asia. They thinned the human population by laying waste to large parts of the world where they did not have cities. The Tripods gave people instructions through the Caps to abandon their large cities and technology, likely by giving the message that they no longer needed science and technology, that those things had been the cause of their previous war and destruction. Laurie explains that the Tripods would know that those things were connected to independent, free thinking, and that people would have to be told to abandon them if they were to be kept under control. People settled in small villages and towns, returning to a largely agricultural lifestyle like the one their ancestors lived in past centuries. Some of them returned to a medieval style fedual system, as seen in the society of the Compt and Comptess in France. John Christopher explained in one of his forwards that the Masters learned about human history and determined that returning humans to this period, a period before great technological and scientific leaps, would keep them easy to control. The sole remaining hope for humanity was the enclave of free men and women in the tunnel in the White Mountains.
